| Narrative | According to historian Maurice French, in late 1842, squatter Sydenham Russell, and stockmen Ralph Gore and Domville Taylor 'surprised a large group of natives coolly rounding up a mob of cattle in broad daylight between Yandilla and Tummaville.' (French, 1989, pp 102-103) According to historian HS Russell, 'The blacks had been more aggressive of late than ever. They were harrying and killing cattle wherever cattle were. The shepherds were in a terrible state of "funk," and no wonder. My brother had caught them, when crossing the plain between Yandilla and Tummavil in company with Ralph Gore and Taylor, coolly rounding a mob up in the open, and preparing to kill. A "set-to" was the consequence. The blacks numbered about three hundred, and kept admirable order and showed unusual courage. Upon the firing of a shot, the "ducking" of heads and rush on their assailants were instantaneous, well arranged, and executed. Syd.'s horse was fidgetty; so he jumped off and let him loose. The "brummagem" double barrelled gun which he had—mine, however—burst in his hands without doing damage; and it must have been quite half-an-hour before the mob, which showed a steady line throughout, had retreated, step by step, to the timber which skirted the western edge of the plain, and only then turned tail.' (Russell, 1888, p 328). |
